What Parents Never Tell You
by Niece of the Prophet Zarquon
Summary: As Mr and Mrs Oliver try to decide what to tell Sam, they look back on how they met and wonder did they betray their son?
1. Chapter 1

Season two is starting on Monday! All I hope is someone puts on a streaming site quickly or I won't get watch it until the summer. I'm not looking to sell my soul to He Who Looks Like a Real Estate Agent so I can see it but I am willing to discuss timeshare.

I wanted to put up my ideas for Sam Oliver's mysterious parentage before the plot moves on. Theses events are directly following Cancun.

Disclaimer: I don't own Reaper, pity that.

* * *

Sam Oliver's mother pulled up out side the cheap motel and looked around and up checking that nobody was about. She grabbed the Wal-Mart bags and walked quickly up to her room. She placed the bags on the bed and as she did so, a gray, seven foot tall demon with horns and wings stepped out of the bathroom.

'Thanks honey. These tiny complimentary bars of soap stand no chance of shifting all this dirt,' her husband, Mr Oliver, grinned weakly and returned to the bathroom.

His wife continued staring ahead, her lips pressed tight together. Apart from saying she was going to get him clothes and shampoo, Mrs Oliver hadn't spoken a word to her husband since earlier that night when she dug him out of a cage some ten feet below ground level.

When Mr Oliver came back out from the bathroom he was obviously uncomfortable. 'Well, this is going to complicate matters some, but I think if we can just put our heads together we can work out a story that will explain everything...'

His wife snapped. 'That's it? _That_ is how you plan to cope with this? "We'll work out a story?"' All of the rage that had been sitting in her stomach that evening since her bedraggled son Sam had come home... no scratch that, since his last birthday... scratch that again, some twenty-three years worth of rage and frustration was bubbling up and focusing on her husband.

'Our son was nearly buried alive today! He has half the demon population of Seattle after him and he is starting to think that the Devil is his real father! What's worse than all of this is he no longer trusts us because we have lied to him for his whole life! I can't do this anymore! Every piece of trust that Sam loses will make it that that bit easier for the Devil to get close and_ I won't lose Sam to him!_'

With that last desperate shout Mrs Oliver collapsed on the bed deep ugly sobs shaking her shoulders. Her husband sat beside her and pulled her close so her crying was muffled against his chest.

He had rarely seen his wife so upset except for one awful time just after Sam was born. Everyone had warned him that mixed marriages couldn't last (as one demon put it, Hitler had more chance of being released from the quicklime pits for being kind to small animals) but they had coped. Now they risked losing everything or perhaps they had been just putting off the inevitable for twenty-five years.

**************************************************

He cast his mind back to the first time he saw his wife. He had been working in the 'lost and found' corner of the Seattle bus depot, carefully making sure none of the house keys, electronics and children's beloved stuffed toys were ever seen again. He also had to neatly separate gloves, break umbrellas and hide smelly sports socks in in the bags.

It was a good job, getting experience of people above ground before he could transfer into the Temptations and Deal-Making division.

The bus depot had it's share of strange people but he could not recall seeing anyone who had looked odder than the future Mrs Oliver. Even under better circumstances he thought she must be an eye catcher, tall and willowy with blond hair and nice features, but at the moment people were positively staring. She was wearing a business suit that had probably been expensive, at one point anyway. Now however it looked as if bright purple ink had exploded all over her, she was barefoot, with ripped hose and her face was swollen with a very ugly bruise.

He had plenty of time to take in all this as she went first to information, then queued at bookings, back to information and finally she stalked (not easy for a woman with no shoes) over to 'lost and found'.

'Do you take escaped souls here?' she snapped, dropping a rubber ink stamp on the counter between them.

'You're the new bounty hunter? Yeah... um... I take that from you and I give you this...' he pulled out a carved wooden box with a file taped on it off a shelf and put it on the counter. 'The way this works is I give you the files on the escaped souls and the vessels you need to catch them. You bring them back here and so on ad-nausium. If there is nothing here for you when you make a drop off the vessel will come to you and you come to me for the file.'

Her scowl deepened. 'Wait, why can't they both come to me?'

'You're working for hell now, you're a proud part of the ultimate bureaucracy. Nothing makes sense so you'd better get used to it.'

She flipped open the box and pulled out the contents. 'A scented candle? I have to run down souls armed with a scented candle! Urugggh it's disgusting! I cannot believe this day! I go to the bank on my lunch break, there's a hold up. I get _taken hostage, _punched and have the stupid dye pack explode on me. Then this guy shows up out of nowhere and tries to attack the felon with a rubber stamp and of course he gets shot and dies! But first he tells me to use the stamp on the bank robber who then disappears in a puff of smoke.

'Finally that snake in a thousand dollar suit shows up and tells me that because of a dumb mistake I made when I was sixteen I get to chase dead people for the rest of my life with only stationary supplies and lame gifts for weapons!' She stopped, fury radiating off her like steam.

'Yep, that's pretty much the whole thing,' he couldn't help smiling. 'Be seeing you real soon.'

She snorted, grabbed the vessel and the file from the counter and stalked away. He watched her until she left through the automatic doors and sighed.

'Hellfire and brimstone. I did not think humans made 'em like that'

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Hells bells I meant this for a one shot but there is a lot more to this story than I expected. I want to get it all up before Monday so expect and update soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to Confab for nitpicking at my writing, correcting my bad punctuation and for telling me it's a great story.

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They saw each other at least twice a week after that. She rarely said more that 'so what do you have for me now?' But he found he looked forward more and more to seeing her. He would read the file before she got in and used to worry about her if it took longer than usual for her to bring the vessel back.

Once she was gone for nearly a week and he was frantic. He got a copy of the file and headed to a truly exclusive club that the soul was supposed to haunt.

He spotted the bounty hunter in a diner down the street from the club. She was sitting alone in party cloths looking truly lovely apart from the mascara streaking her face.

He went in and sat across from her.

'Hi.' He felt suddenly awkward. He was glad that she wasn't in danger but he had no clue about how to deal with her being upset. 'What's wrong?'

'Oh, hi.' In the months he had known her this was the first time he had seen her smile, a watery, splotchy, mascara streaked smile. But even so.

'What's up?'

'It's this soul. The only place he can be found is this club and I can't get in. I've tried bribery, flirting with the bouncers and sneaking in the back but no go. Now they're suspicious and say that if I try again they'll have me arrested which would be really bad 'cause for once the vessel actually looks like it's a real weapon. She opened her purse to show him what looked for all the world like a hand grenade. 'I can't get arrested with this.'

'Yeah I can see that. Why don't I get a coffee and we can work out a plan of attack?' He smiled at her and got a blotchy smile back.

'What kinds of ice-cream do you have?' the demon asked the waitress at the counter. 'Great give me a scoop of each and a black coffee. Could I use a tray to bring them back to my table?'

He put the ice-cream dish on the tray, being careful not to touch the ice-cream at all. He carried them over to the table and put the ice-cream down in front of her. 'Eat up and you'll feel better,' he sat down and pushed the spoon over.

'Maybe you're right and I never turn up my nose at free ice-cream,' the smile was a good bit stronger now. 'Aren't you having any?'

'Can't, demons are anathema and are not permitted to enjoy ice-cream.' For the first time he heard her laugh. 'No honestly if I was to touch this it would melt into a puddle. It's something to remember if the Devil and the rest of us demons are wearing you down, "at least I can eat strawberry ice-cream." It might help.'

'It does. Thanks.' They sat in silence for a few minutes; he didn't think that the trouble with the soul was the full problem. He could use his training for Temptations to get her to open up.

'So how did you get involved with all of this?'

'You remember I told you about the bank robbery.'

'No I mean at first… you mentioned once about a deal when you were sixteen?'

'Oh right that… well I was young, foolish and desperately in love with a sweet young man who had leukemia and was fast running out of remission. I was sitting in the hospital canteen and a nice older gentleman sat down across form me and he asked me what was happening. One thing led to another and he offered me a chance to make my one true love all better.' That last was given with a bitter twist of the lips.

'What happened?'

'Well you know how these things work. I signed the contract. The boyfriend made a "miracle recovery" and he dumped me before his hair started to grow back. I heard this morning he had gotten married…' She stopped and blew her nose noisily. 'Sorry. Well I'm not heartbroken anymore, in fact I barely remember what he looks like, but now he's alive and living a normal life and I'm damned for all eternity and hunting down a dead drug dealer. It seems a little skewed.'

The bounty hunter stood up abruptly. 'No more self-pity, come on Demon-Who-May-Not-Eat-Ice-Cream, help me catch Charlie the escaped soul.' She checked her makeup in a compact and groaned then disappeared to the bathroom.

********************************

On their way to the club he asked how she planned to get in.

'Well, I was hoping you'd do something strange by the doors to distract the bouncers so I could slip behind them. It's a classic.'

'Yes but how about those open windows?'

She stared. 'Those? They're four floors up and they're not near the fire escape, how would we get to them?'

'Like this.' Quick as a wink he transfered into his demon appearance, grabbed her waist and flew up to the open windows. She gave a little scream and dug her nails into his arms.

'What the... Oh my....' He pushed her through the window, then climbed in after her. This was difficult as he was a good bit larger as a demon.

He turned around and saw her sitting with her back against the wall breathing quickly with her eyes closed. He realized he must have scared her and hurriedly turned back to human. 'Oh hellfire and brimstone! Did I scare you? I'm sorry... I just thought it would take too long to explain first and I can't fly when I look human so...'

'No,' she shook her head. 'well, yes it scared me a bit, but you can fly! That is so amazing and brilliant, you can fly!' She started laughing quietly a huge smile on her face. He joined in the laughter and helped her to feet. Standing there, seeing her smile, he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to grab her and fly away as far and as high as he could. She grinned again. 'Come on. Let's go wage war.'

They slipped down the corridors as quietly as they could looking for the stairs. The place did not look like the offices above a night club. Where one would have expected it to be bare, un-carpeted and basic with glimpses of locker rooms, instead they were walking on a deep pile dark red carpet. The wallpaper as well was a dark charcoal with with red trim and recessed lighting.

He stopped for a moment and listened then, as the bounty hunter watched in amazement, the demon started blushing.

'Did the file ever mention if there was anything... different about this club?' he asked

'No, just the address. Why?' The demon gestured and she pressed her ear against the door. She heard someone moaning, then a deep male voice groaned. 'Oh... Oh that's why. Well, um... that does complicate things. How are we going to find the soul without interrupting everyone, and what about the grenade? I have no idea what will happen when that goes off. What if it blows everything sky high?'

He nodded. 'That wouldn't be good at all. The Devil has a very strict no innocent bystanders policy.'

'No kidding? I wouldn't have thought he cared.'

'Well,' he said. ' Innocents go to heaven when they die. The Devil says that the longer people live the more chance they have of damning themselves. Never mind that, let's find the soul first, then make the plan.'

'I... hush wait!' Around the corner there came a large bald man in a black suit. He practically had 'bouncer' written on his forehead. What's worse he was the same guy who had threatened to call the cops on her earlier. She did the first thing she could think of which was grab the the handle of the door behind her and pull herself and the demon through it. 'Crap! Did he see us?'

This last came as they belatedly realized that the room was occupied, and a man and woman, stark naked and very much interrupted, were staring at them.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' shouted the man who was handcuffed to the bed rail.

'Hi there! Sorry about this, we'll be out of your hair in two seconds... Hey, wait a minute!' she smiled and pulled a photo from her bag. 'Charlie! Of all the brothels in all the towns in all the world we bump into you here!'

The bounty hunter started rooting through her bag and pulled out the vessel. Holding the hang grenade up, with her finger in the pin, she grinned broadly. 'Now, are you going to come along quietly?'

As she was holding up the grenade the door opened again, and the bouncer they had been avoiding came in, but he froze when he saw the weapon. The bounty hunter pulled the pin and showed him the vessel with the handle pressed in. 'He promised he wouldn't come back here!' she cried. 'He swore and now he'll pay.'

Her partner started trying to move the bouncer and Charlie's naked bed-mate out the door. 'You should go, call the police and tell them there's a hostage situation here. I'll try and talk her down. Okay,' he said as he closed the door. 'Have you given any thought to how we're going to get out of this? And do you know if this soul has any strange powers?'

'No, none,' she said giggling. 'And I have no clue what will happen when I let go of this.'

Charlie spoke up, 'Look I don't _feel good_ about going back to hell just now. Why don't we _kick back, relax _and _get off _this subject.'

The bounty hunter still giggling helplessly began to sink to the floor. Her partner side stepped to her and supported her with one arm around her waist while the other kept her from dropping the vessel. 'Are you okay?'

'No I'm as high as a space shuttle. I don't know if I can do this!'

'It must be Charlie, I think he's pumping nitrous oxide into the air. That would be the strange powers then.'

'And I doesn't affect you?'

'No, demons lungs can cope with far worse. How will we get out of this?'

'Out through the window!' This got her giggling again. 'Intruder-window! Out-truder-window. Okay, okay, if you get out the window, I'll throw the vessel and follow.'

He nodded, changed into demon form and climbed out the window. She threw the grenade at Charlie and went to follow, but then she realized that if she did this she would have to come back to get the vessel. So she did the only thing she could think of. She rolled beneath the bed and waited for the scream, or explosion or whatever.

'Noooarrragh...!' The bed shook, there was a bright flash, a heavy bang and the room was left in silence. She stayed where she was for the moment and watched chunks of plaster raining down on the floor about her. The room was left in darkness except for the streetlight.

'Well, that seemed to work,' she crawled out, stood up and looked about. Charlie was gone and so was a lot of other stuff. When she had first come in the room had looked like a hotel room, nice but impersonal. There had been a bed, a dressing table with a mirror, a small vase of flowers and a stand alone cupboard. That apart from a couple of framed prints, a clock on the wall and Charlie's and the girl's clothes scattered on the floor, was it.

Now the bed clothes were gone, the framed prints and the clock had been ripped from the walls and vanished, the vase and curtains had gone and the cupboard had both fallen over and seemed to have been dragged a few inches towards the bed. She looked up, oh and the light fixture had been ripped out.

'Are you hurt?' The demon was looking through the window, a worried expression on his face.

'No, no, I'm fine ,' she said in a far away voice. 'So now we know, hand-grenade vessels from hell can implode as well as explode.'

'Look at me. You need to get out before anyone comes in. Get the vessel... there it is. Now climb out the window and I've got you'

'Okey-dokey,' she sat on the window ledge, he picked he up and flew down to street level.

'Give me your car keys, no listen, your dazed and confused and may still be affected by that soul's drugs. I'm driving you home. Now where's your car?'

She point mutely and they walked along to her car.

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Still in in demon form he parked the car outside her apartment. Apart from her directions they hadn't talked during the drive. When they stopped she turned to him and said. 'Thank you for tonight, I could never have gotten in and out of there without you.'

'You're welcome but you should know you never get anything for free with demons. I want something in return.'

'Oh?' she looked nervous. 'What you want?'

'Have dinner with me tomorrow night.'

'That's all?'

'That's all you have to do to pay me back.'

She smiled 'Then I accept. Meet me here tomorrow at eight?'

'It's a deal. I'll take the vessel with me,' He leaned over and kissed her gently before flying away.

'Oh my paws and whiskers,' breathed the future Mrs. Oliver. 'What a day this has been.'

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Thanks for reading so far I hope to get the last segment up by Monday but if not it will be within the week.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks so much to Reaper-Maniac for reviewing and to Poohbear's Darkness for favoriteing. Seriously I would never have finished this so quickly without your support and I hope you enjoy the last chapter. And as always thanks to Confab for his criticism and never-ending encouragement.

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From that day forward the demon and the bounty hunter were nearly inseparable. They ate lunch together, chased down escaped souls and watched endless hours of movies while curled up on his couch. Not that they didn't have problems, the demon community tended to look askance at their relationship.

Humans died so quickly, he was warned, how could he expect to have a serious girlfriend who was liable to get shot, stabbed, electrocuted, crushed in an automobile accident or attacked by microscopic organisms? Even in the best of circumstances, they said, her body was going to start falling apart in twenty to thirty years. Then she would be sent to hell and there would be no chance of them being allowed to see each other.

They talked over all this and decided that they preferred to enjoy the good times while they still had them. It was hard to worry about the future anyway when you were faced with escapees who poisoned buildings with legionnaire's disease, kidnapped children from the school buses and attacked people while looking like their secret crush.

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It was one evening in late autumn when he proposed. Like most girls she had wondered under what circumstances her future husband would pop the question. Would be formal and traditional after a romantic dinner? Or would it be more intimate, following a long afternoon spent alone. As it turned out it was late evening, after they had been chasing a soul through Seattle's most exclusive country club.

The soul had been preying on rich, elderly ladies who reminded him of his grandmother, she had finally caught him in the stables where she had been pelted with manure and on of the horses had stood on her foot.

When she had limped up to her boyfriend, sweaty, covered in filth and unleashing a flood of foulmouthed invective against horses, souls and snooty country clubs, he realized that he didn't want to spend a single day without her, her enthusiasm for all the little things they did together, her fearlessness when fighting souls that were far more likely to kill her and her anger against the souls choose to take their resentments out on the living.

They married that that winter, city hall of course, with no guests. He had worried about what hell would say about a demon marrying a human under contract, but they decided to go ahead and treat the whole thing as being none of hell's business. Not that they intended to be secretive, they were hosting a party that evening for humans and demon friends to celebrate. That would be their policy for the rest of their lives together, they swore, their marriage was their own and the hosts of hell could not interfere.

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When they left City Hall, giggling about another couple whose mothers had argues non-stop the entire time they had been there, they didn't see the Devil until they were nearly on top of him.

'Hi kids, I wanted to be the first to offer my congratulations,' the Devil was wearing his biggest smile, warmth and sincerity shining from every white tooth. The newly-weds felt chilled to the bone and involuntarily stepped closer together.

'Oh, don't be like that. I think it's great that you too kids are settling down together. In spite of everything.'

Mr Oliver finally unglued his tongue from the roof of his mouth. 'Hi, thanks for coming. Are you coming to the party tonight?'

'Aw, thank you for the invitation but it might kill the mood if the boss shows up.' Mr Oliver hadn't exactly meant it as an invitation but he nodded anyway. The new Mrs Oliver held her husband's hand and didn't trust herself to speak.

'Now I know you kids haven't got a honey-moon booked so I want to give you my wedding present,' the Devil gave Mr Oliver a white envelope then, smiling his whiter than white smile again, left. The Oliver's didn't speak for a while afterwards but held each other tight.

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The envelope turned out to contain flights and a booking for a four star hotel in Palm Springs. Aware that the Devil never gave gifts with out some strings attached, the couple were on edge the whole way out and were relieved when they found a vessel waiting in their hotel room when they came back from dinner the first night.

The file said the escaped soul was a former 'fine dining' chef who had grown so incensed by his customer indiscriminatingly adding salt and sauces to his food that he had taken to poisoning all of the salt shakers in his restaurant. As they read the name of the hotel where he now worked the bounty hunter's face turned green and she dashed for the bathroom. In the end they spent the first night of their honey-moon chasing the chef around the kitchen. He was armed with foot long Japanese crafted knives and the burning hot gas ranges, they're weapon was a plastic tomato ketchup dispenser humorously in the shape of a tomato and one of them had stop every now and again to dry heave.

When the soul was captured and the fight was over a member management, called to the scene by a hysterical night porter, found them in the ruined kitchen with her throwing up yet again in the pastry section. They were turned out of the hotel within the hour and the only other room they could get was a run down motel with the pay-per-view prices stuck up next to the television set. On the upside the night-clerk was able to accept the vessel.

Back home home life quickly got back into a routine. Like many women delighted with her first home the Mrs Oliver wanted to do all the housework herself and after the a few months bitterly regretted not making her husband do his share from the start. Mr Oliver quit the bus depot and found that his training in Temptations and Dealing-Making worked really well in advertising. She learned how to prepare the large amounts of raw meat that demons needed and they both developed DIY skills after he had changed shape inside their house and cranked the ceiling.

They still hunted the escaped souls together, and although they were mostly able to bring them in without any serious trouble, she ended up in hospital a couple of times. This earned her husband some very suspicious questions from the hospital staff and her a visit from a very nice lady who told her how to contact a couple of women's refuge centers 'if she ever found a reason to leave.'

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One Saturday morning Mr Oliver was drinking coffee and reading the paper when his wife came back from an early morning appointment and sat down beside him.

'Hi honey, would you like the world new?' he fished out the section without looking up.

'No, thank you. Could you put down the paper dear? We need to talk.'

'Sure honey. What's up?'

'You remember how you told me, back when we got engaged, how we wouldn't be able to have children because humans and demons don't interbreed well? I need you define "well".'

'Wha...?'

'I really haven't been feeling good the last few days,' the bounty hunter continued grimly. 'And I should have gotten my period last week. So I went to see Dr. Burke just in case I'd been more injured than I thought after that soul threw me into those packing crates and he told me that I'm about a month along. So we need to talk.'

'You're pregnant,' her husband finally said.

'Congratulations kids! I came as soon as I heard!' the Devil was suddenly standing at the fireplace drinking coffee that smelt far better than anything they had in the house.

'Thank you, but I assume you don't offer maternity leave, so why are you here?' as always Mrs Oliver was becoming waspish when the situation was out of her control. She hadn't decided yet how she felt about being pregnant but her husband definitely looked scared. (Also the coffee was calling her, to think she might have to give it up for nine months!)

'No, I was hoping that you would ask me to be godfather.' The Devil sipped his coffee and idly examined a framed photo on the mantelpiece. 'Awe look at that so young and full of hope.'

'Godfather! Thank you, but I think that the crack dealer I go past on the way to work each day might make a better role model,' she stood up with her arms folded and lips pursed.

'Oh that's hard,' he put a hand to his chest. 'I'm hurt. Really. You'd better tell her.' This last was to Mr Oliver who had been sitting still with a worried expression. The demon look up and nodded.

'Honey please sit back down,' his wife did as she was asked and he took her hand s in his. 'It's true that demons and humans find it hard to have children, it's only happened a couple of dozen times in the across the whole of human history... and it's never ended well.'

'What do you mean?' she touched her stomach tentatively. 'Does the child grow up to be a monster or something?'

'Well it can be different each time. Sometimes they look human sometimes like demons. Some had powers that weren't typical for either group. Some were killed by by humans although there's no record of them doing anything wrong and some became killers and tyrants.'

'Wow, talk about special needs,' she smiled weakly.

'There's more,' he touched his wife's face gently. 'In each case pregnancy lasted somewhere between ten and and sixteen months. It took a lot more out of the mother than... Well there's no record of a human woman surviving.'

She swallowed. 'So that's it then, I'd better make an appointment.' The words were strangely painful, she had always been more or less pro-choice but had always thought that she would choose to keep the baby, but this...

'There is another option,' His Satanic Majesty interjected. Her head shot up.

_'What did you do?'_ she hissed.

'I told Dr Burke to swap your birth control for placebos,' the Devil grinned. 'Minty flavored. You really would not believe how bad his poker face is. But seriously kids, I can make sure there are no problems with pregnancy or the birth. That little boy will be completely normal. He'll have no 'strange powers' at least not until he can cope with them. He won't be any different from the other kids nor will he be more evil than any of them. He'll be almost absolutely human.'

'And what will you get?' asked Mr Oliver.

'Oh I get the boy,' his grin seemed to grow more shark like. 'Not straight away mind you. You two can keep him until he's all grown up, say his twenty-first birthday? After that he's mine.'

Mrs Oliver snapped. 'You trick us into having a baby and then you ask us to sell it to you? No! Absolutely not! We are not going to be used like that!' but a voice in the back of her head whispered '_a boy, he said that I was carrying a boy.'_

'Aw now, don't put it like that as fit he was being swapped for a few dollars or some drugs. I'm offering him the chance of a real life with his mother to look after him. Which is more than he could have without my help. You won't have to keep hunting souls either, you could be a full time mommy. And as a bonus I'll extend same protection to any other children you may have at absolutely no extra charge,' there was that shark-like smile again.

Mr and Mrs Oliver gazed at each other. During the Devils offer they had started thinking of the baby as a real person and they realized that they were no longer a supernatural bounty hunter and her demon lover but parents trying to figure out what was best for their child. She nodded slowly.

'Yes, alright, yes,' whispered Mr Oliver.

'That's great! You two are going to be wonderful parents! I know it seems scary now but just you wait until that little bundle of joy is in your arms. Oh and just one more thing,' the smile disappeared and a bleak chill swept through room, making it feel for a moment as though hell had truly frozen over. 'He can't know about who he is. Not a word about until he is twenty-one and after that don't care what you tell him as long as you don't tell him he's half demon.'

'Why?' said Mr Oliver. 'Why can't he know that his father is a demon? And why do you want him in the first place?'

'Oh you don't need to know that,' the Prince of Darkness smiled again. 'You kids just look after that baby for me.'

Mrs Oliver stood up, she was shaking but she looked the Devil square in the eye while saying, 'Well now that that's all settled I'm going to kill my pregnancy craving with strawberry ice-cream.' It was such an inadequate response to the situation but she swore that she saw the Devil wince as she left the room.

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Years later, as he sat in the cheap motel room, holding his sobbing wife, Mr Oliver thought about all of these events.

He thought of his wife and the and how she had struggled with depression after Sam was born and the full significance of what they done sank in.

He thought of his son, Sam, and what it would have been like to raise him on his own.

He thought of their younger son, Kyle, away in college and the only member of the family free of the Devils influence.

And he thought of the promise he and his wife had made to each other years ago, that they would never let hell interfere with their family. It seemed so long ago.

'Honey?' he said brushing her hair back. 'Why don't you phone Sam and ask him to come over here?'

She looked up, red eyed and blotchy faced. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes, I'm sure. Whatever happens we'll work through it as a family,' He kissed her. 'Phone him, I'll go get dressed.'

As he changed back to human form and started pulling on clothes out of the Wal-Mart bags his wife blew her nose, 'Honey?'

'Yes dear?'

'Whatever happens. I want you to know that I'm really glad that being buried alive couldn't kill you.'

He walked back over to her and wrapped her in his arms, 'I never would have gotten out of there without you. You always were my hero.'

Fade-out on a kiss.

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I really loved writing this story. If you made it to the end than then I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I did but if you did or if you hated it please review and let me know.

_'{life's} like Vegas. You're up, you're down but in the end the house always wins. Doesn't mean you didn't have fun.' _The Devil as played by Billy Crystal, Deconstructing Harry.


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